We finished our work contract and quarantined by boondocking in the mountains for two weeks. We wanted to do lots of hiking and focus on improving my hip. I've noticed over the last few months that doing an abductor stretch after a hike seems to help quiet any pain that may develop; I also take 800mg ibuprofen if there is any pain, or 600mg if there isn't pain, to help reduce any inflammation and help overnight healing.
The first hike, on Friday, was a four-mile hike with some little ups and downs, no problem. Two days after, Sunday, we did a 12-mile hike with 2400ft elevation change. I did quite well going up. Coming back down did trigger pain, which made the last few miles rather uncomfortable. The hip continued to be sore the next day despite taking ibuprofen but not as bad. I figured everything will be OK and that it was an expected outcome since I've been hiking/walking on flat terrain for the last 6 months (except for the one hike last month I talked about in my last post).
Monday was a rest day but Tuesday we went on a slow four-mile hike with only 680ft elevation change. My hip did pretty well. Wednesday we did a five-mile hike with 1260ft elevation change. Thursday we took a rest day. Friday we did a 9.5-mile hike with 1500ft elevation change and, although my hip felt a little stiff at the beginning, my hip felt fantastic at the end of the hike. Saturday, I decided to perform an abductor stretch before the hike as well as after and definitely felt an improvement. We hiked 8.2 miles with 1760ft elevation change. Sunday we did a mellow 8.8-mile hike with 1100ft elevation change, stretching before and after the hike. Still doing well.
After 1.5 weeks, I've at least doubled the distance I can walk, I can walk a steady clip, and I definitely have my balance for rock hopping with trekking poles. Uphill doesn't seem to present that much of a problem for me but downhill triggers pain, even if I engage my core and use my muscles to lower myself down instead of my typical fashion of just letting gravity pull me down, which is more jarring to the joints. Too much sitting also irritates the hip as well as taking wider steps. My 1-year post-op follow-up with Dr. Hagen is in a few weeks so I'll have to ask her about these. In the meantime, I'm going to start adding weight-carrying to my hikes and continue to try to hike multiple days in a row, no matter the distance, to simulate more thru-hike like conditions.
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